Robot Teddy Bear Chats With Drunk Drivers

A robot teddy bear helps navigate your car and senses alcohol, according to engineers from the iXs Research Corporation in Japan. The prototype is about one foot tall and has articulated arms and neck, adding the power of appropriate gestures.

(Robotic bear confronts you head-on)

If the robot bear senses that alcohol is present (by using the alcohol detection sensor in its neck), the robot bear confronts the driver, saying "You haven't been drinking, have you?"

SF writers have done their best to prepare you for this future. In his excellent 1963 novel The Game Players of Titan, Philip K. Dick writes about a conversation that a man has with his car following a evening of drinking.

It had been a bad night, and when he tried to drive home he had a terrible argument with his car.

"Mr. Garden, you are in no condition to drive. Please use the auto-auto mech and recline in the rear seat."

Pete Garden sat at the steering tiller and said as distinctly has he could manage, "Look, I can drive... Start, darn it!"

The auto-auto said "You have not inserted the key."

"Okay," he said, feeling humiliated. Maybe the car was right.
(Read more about the alcohol-sensing car)